Good Morning. It's Wednesday 19th October, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road. Bolton rampant against Leeds fledglings Leeds U21's slipped to their first defeat of the season, as a rampant Bolton side ran out 3-0 victors, booking their place in the Papa Johns Trophy knockout stage in the process. Even though Gelhardt, Gnonto and Greenwood were omitted from the squad, due to first team preparations for Thursdays upcoming clash against the Foxes, Michael Skubala was still able to put out a strong starting XI which included former Atlético Madrid shot-stopper Joel Robles. The gulf between developmental and senior football was apparent from kick-off. Domestically, whilst the Trotters may be an upper League 1 outfit, their superiority was evident from the opening whistle. Had their finishing been more clinical, they could have had a hatful; fortunately last ditch defending and some smart keeping from (32yo) Robles spared their blushes. There was little for Leeds fans to get excited about. Whilst the likes of Perkins and Joseph may be prolific within their age group, they rarely threatened a well marshalled Bolton defence. Leeds still have one game to play in the competition. A win against Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road in a fortnight’s time will seal their place in the next round. please log in to view this image Firpo fit to play Junior Firpo has overcome his latest niggle, and is set for first team action this week. The 26yo has had a torrid start to the season with various injury problems. His only appearance this campaign came as a second half substitute against Aston Villa, after Leeds went down to ten men. Whilst the former Barcelona defender is expected to receive game time this week, he is unlikely to displace Pascal Struijk in the starting line up. After nine appearances, the 23yo Dutchman tops the Leeds Whoscored ranking list with a 7.07 rating. please log in to view this image Leeds drop to 19th in latest form guide After four losses and two draws in their last six games, Leeds have slipped to 19th in the latest form guide. Only Nottingham Forest by virtue that they have scored one less goal have a worse record. Whilst wins against Leicester City and Fulham this week could propel them to temporary mid-table safety, what if the worst were to happen? After a dismal start, Leicester have begun to pick up points, whilst Sunday opponents (Fulham) already sit three places (and three points) ahead of the Whites. Is it too early to call these six pointers? How many points do Leeds need from these two games, and how many do you envisage they will get?
I think greenwood was suspended as he got sent off again tranmere. Struijk has been surprisingly solid as left back, Firpo shouldn't get a sniff IMO Morning all
Of course they are six pointers. Beat Leicester we move seven points ahead of them, lose and were one point. That's a six pointer. We could be bottom of table Sunday evening if results went wrong so they are definitely six pointers. The idea that development foot ball is below League one football is likely to come as an awful shock to many on social media constantly calling for kids to be selected for senior teams after a handful of good u21 performances. Often the same ones saying Marsch isn't fir to be coach because of it. Cracking news that Firpo is back though
Re u21s. Guess it depends what your definition of putting a strong side out is… 7 of them were 18 or under, only 1 outfield player north of 20. You’d expect a gulf to man’s football.
Leicester a Fulham h Liverpool a Bournemouth h big 4 games, where we clearly need to pick up points. What’s a decent return? For me, 5 bare minimum, 7 would be great. Any more would be fantastic.
Cant wait to see junior Asprin on Sunday...... Sat in the stands hopefully. Anyway is he not due an injury putting his shorts on?.
The difference is you’re putting out an entire development team against men, seasoned professionals. The players that might have the ability to step up will be playing with mostly senior first team players around them. That’s when you find out who can cope with first team football. We need six points from the next two matches.
With Palace picking up 3 points last night against managerless Wolves, we need to start plugging that gap. Even Forest picked up a point last night too. Leicester, Fulham and Bournemouth we must hope for 9 points to try and put some distance between us and the bottom. We are capable of doing something against Liverpool too going by last weeks performance.
Besides Robles last night the senior player was Alfie at 22yo who has only ever played L2 football, and no idea why hes still with us? For the last couple of seasons we stand no chance in ghe EFL Cup and Papa Johns simply because of first team games and U23 games being only a day or 2 from the cup games. Last season we tried to stay up in Prem2 Div1 so couldnt even afford to play anyone except U18s. This season we have a fit first team squad so was able to field a strong team against Tranmere but last night due to have 3 first team games in a week we were unable to put out a strong team. Most U21 teams were beaten last night including Newcastle, Man Utd, Liverpool. Development is the name if the game and Skibula reckons we were taught a valuable lesson and the kids will learn
Table is interesting, we're not shipping goals like those around us, which is a plus over last season. Just need to start scoring the chuffing things. We have a 4 to 7 goals better GD so far over those below, with 14 over Forest.
Leeds average age last night was almost 20yrs (19.8) though having a 32 yo keeper goes some way towards that. We had one 17yo playing. McGurk turned 19 today. Has he under delivered so far? McCalmont is 22. Is he surplus to requirements? Drameh turns 21 in December. Will he make it?
Although that could all change, when we play the likes of Man city/Liverpool/scum. Good morning everyone on this bright positive morning
